SOME FOLK-SONGS AND MYTHS FROM SAMOA. 271 
succeed; for the rest of the giants ate apart, and two of their number 
-came and devoured the whole of the offering of food. Ina similar way 
-our nursery tales tell us of the enormous voracity of giants. 
The Sa-Tangaloa now have recourse to stratagems. They try a club- 
bing-match, swimming on the bosom of the swollen river, and exposure 
to heavy rain. ‘These are all thoroughly Polynesian; and so they prove 
that, wherever the Polynesian forefathers got the frame-work of the 
myth, it has since been filled in with local incidents. The same thing is 
apparent in the whole setting of the Norse tales also, in which frost and 
ice are a conspicuous feature. That portion of our myth which speaks of 
Losi and his doings is also purely Polynesian. 
From these snares the giants deliver themselves by their superior 
strength and cunning, and ultimately, in open combat, they conquer the 
Sa-Tangaloa and spoil them of their goods. And thus ends the war. 
But the whole conflict arose at the first from the tricksomeness of Losi, 
who corresponds in this respect with the Robin Goodfellow of our English 
tales. 
It must be confessed here that this Samoan myth ends tamely enough; 
for, in addition to the expulsion of the Sa-Tangaloa, the only result of 
the war is the gaining of ‘ taro’ roots, and cocoa-nut trees, and banyans 
and the like, for the inhabitants of earth. We almost regret that there 
is not here some grand catastrophe; as when, in the classic tale, the van- 
quished are thrust down to earth and Tartarus, and thenceforth restrained 
by chains on their limbs, or such an island as Sicily cast upon the pros- 
trate body of a Typhoeus, his mouth under Etna, from which in his 
struggles to be free he vomits flames. But such as the Samoans made 
the myth to be and such as I found it, I have given it to you. 
Then again, in eastern lands also, another and an important parallel 
to this Samoan myth of ours is found in the Rémdyana, the famous Sans- 
krit epic, which details the adventures of the Indian hero Rama, and also 
in the Boma-kavya of Java which tells of Boma, an earth-born hero, who 
fought with the inferior gods and vanquished them. Allow me a few 
words as to these two poems. 
The popular belief in India makes Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva to be the 
supreme gods, occupying the higher and invisible firmament. But ofthe 
subordinate gods—the devas—dwelling in the lower sky, the chief is 
Indra, who is the visible heavens, and wields the lightnings and the thun- 
derbolt. Others of the devas are Varuna, the god of the ocean; Yama, 
the god of the south and of Hades; Agni, the god of fire. These and 
